Prediction of outcome in schizophrenia. III. Five-year outcome and its predictors.

Recent studies of schizophrenia have begun to demonstrate the complex nature of its outcome characteristics and their predictors. However, generalization of findings has been limited by methodological problems such as relatively short-term follow-up the use of retrospective data, or employment of evaluation techniques without demonstrated reliability. This report describes a prospective, five-year follow-up using reliable evaluation techniques to determine whether specific relations between predictors and outcome variables represent behavior patterns persisting over an extended period. Results demonstrate the prognostic importance and specificity of certain predictors over five years. These results support the view that outcome function is comprised of persisting open-linked systems of behavior.